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RCUK sets out 2015 arrangements for Open Access monitoring

26/08/2015

Research Councils UK (RCUK) has today, 26 August, set out the arrangements for monitoring compliance with its Open Access Policy during 2014-15. The reporting also asks institutions in receipt of the RCUK Block Grant to support open access to set out how it has been used.

Working with research organisations and JISC to improve the process from last year, RCUK have introduced a new template for institutions to complete.  Further improvements to the process will be an area of focus for the new practitioner group that RCUK will be setting up in response to recommendations made by the Burgess Review of the implementation of the policy.

The information collected will help RCUK understand the difference its open access policy is making to the number of peer-reviewed research papers available under open access, and the relative use of the different routes for delivering open access. It will also help RCUK understand progress towards OA at an institutional level as well as the issues individual research organisations face in implementing the policy including the costs.

Research organisations are required to provide information on two areas:

1. Compliance by the research organisation with the OA targets within the RCUK policy. All research organisations in receipt of research funding from the research councils are required to provide information on their compliance with the policy;
2. Accounting for how funds provided in the OA block grant have been spent. Those research organisations in receipt of OA block grants must provide information on how they have spent the funds provided in the block grant.

Research organisations not in receipt of OA block grants are also invited to provide information on their costs in supporting the implementation of the RCUK OA policy.

The deadline for submissions is 30^th October 2015.  The template can be found here and the guidance is available here .

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Further information

Contact:
RCUK Communications Team
Tel: 01793 444592 or email: communications@rcuk.ac.uk